Raith meet to plan for the future

Matthew Elder

Raith Rovers board members met with the management team last month to plan out the club’s future in a Strategy Day.

The meeting was arranged to look at medium to long-term issues surrounding the club, and the board were due to meet again on Wednesday to finalise a draft report.

Raith chairman Alan Young said: “It was a good exercise which gave us a chance to look at some ideas, some off the wall.

“There was a whole batch of things to come out it, and once the draft report is approved it will be made public.

“It was agreed that we consider ourselves to be a Championship club - but that doesn’t mean we’re lacking ambition.

“Our intention is to flirt with promotion, and who knows, it might happen this year, while hopefully not flirting too much with relegation. Realistically, that’s where this club is.

“We’re certainly in the top 20 clubs in Scotland and I’d like to think we’re sitting around 15th or 16th.

“That’s where we are and it’s just a case of making sure we stay there and gradually look to move forward.”

Mr Young revealed that part of the discussions surrounded the need to provide attractive football at Stark’s Park in order to bolster attendances.

“Over the next three to five years we’re looking to gradually improve the league position, the number of points we get, and the number of goals we score, which is important because we’ve had problems there in past,” he said.

“If we can do that, and get better football out there, then we should be able to get more people coming in to watch it, which means more money for the club to pay for players wages.

“We also need to do more in the community. We’ve got the locality of Kirkcaldy, Glenrothes and the surrounding areas and we need to be out and about more.

“It’s something we haven’t done well over a lot of years and actions are going to happen in a variety of areas.

“These are generic statements but we’ve got specifics for them all and everybody has different responsibilities and actions to carry through, and over the next 12 months we’d like to see things moving forward.

“One of the immediate things is to look at is season tickets - we need to try make the purchase of season tickets for next season more attractive - and attractive football is one of main things in that.

“I know we had a situation earlier in the season where fans were saying they wouldn’t be buying season tickets for next year, but things are better now than they were and we’re moving forward.

“The last three months have been a big improvement and there are a variety of reasons for that.

“One of the main ones is our physio, Karen Gibson, who is now going off to Hearts. She has made a big difference getting players fit and back on the pitch again.

“We’re looking for a replacement - which isn’t easy. Hearts are very keen to get Karen across as soon as they can, while we’re very keen to hang onto her as long as we can.

“Karen is working her notice period but if we manage to get a suitable replacement in then we’ll let her move to Hearts sooner.

“There are a few possibilities so let’s hope we can convert one of them into an appointment.”